Hey Peeps, it looks like Matthew is going to hit us here in South FL, so one las post before I shut down. Karen and I have been preparing the house and getting provisions in case. Ill try to saty in contact via my tablet as long as I have power to the wireless link Peace Out.

Casey, Greg and GhostWriter like this

"Can't help about the shape I'm in, I can't sing, I ain't pretty, and my legs are thin.

But don't ask me what I think of you,I might not give the answer that you want me to."

The fam and I got the house as ready as can be and then we skipped town and headed for the Gulf coast. I hope everything is intact when we get back to Seminole County. If landfall happens near Cape Canaveral, it might be rough in our neighborhood.

By the grace of the Gods,Matthew stayed offshore,and whatever heavy weather came in I slept through. Very little rain,some palm fronds blown down and one small tree branch that I'll cut up and throw in the trash.

Amen, thanks for the good wishes, and let's keep them going for our friends farther up the coast.

My Aunt and Uncle work at the Venice (FL) Airport for Agape Flights, a charitable organization that supports American missionaries in Haiti. They flew a plane full of food and supplies down there today. It truly is a disaster area there. If you are looking to donate funds, I can vouch for Agape. Your money gets turned into food and supplies that will get to Haitians in need.

Haiti copped the full force of Matthew. They had already been hurt by the magnitude 7 earthquake of 2010, which knocked them back a generation and killed 160,000. They had to bulldoze the dead into mass graves to stop disease. They were right in the path of hurricanes Gustav and Ike too.

Haiti copped the full force of Matthew. They had already been hurt by the magnitude 7 earthquake of 2010, which knocked them back a generation and killed 160,000. They had to bulldoze the dead into mass graves to stop disease. They were right in the path of hurricanes Gustav and Ike too.

It's just not a safe place to have a country.

Totes agreed. It may be partly its own fault for being a shitty place, but it's been hit by more than its fair share of natural disasters. Can't blame them for that...

Haiti copped the full force of Matthew. They had already been hurt by the magnitude 7 earthquake of 2010, which knocked them back a generation and killed 160,000. They had to bulldoze the dead into mass graves to stop disease. They were right in the path of hurricanes Gustav and Ike too.

It's just not a safe place to have a country.

Yes and no. There is an interesting comparison group for Haiti - it shares an island with the Dominican Republic. While life is no picnic in the DR either, the DR fares better on most indices. According to a 2010 article in Time, the life expectancy in the DR is 74; in Haiti, 61. Literacy and incomes are higher in the DR. The DR has experienced far less deforestation, has far more infrastructure (roads, housing, hospitals), and is overall more modern. It's GDP is 10x higher than Haiti's, and the infant mortality rate 3-4 times lower. We can't blame this on natural disasters, as the DR has experienced plenty of tropical weather too.

Of course, we can't blame it on the people either. When Haitians immigrate to the U.S., they fare about as well as other Caribbean immigrants, and better on some measures. Different colonial histories are part of the issue, but surely a big part of it is the corruption and instability of governments in Haiti for decades. Indeed, if you want to blame a natural disaster, blame Hurricane Duvalier, which ravaged Haiti continuously for 30 years, and left a mess that still hasn't been fixed.

Yes and no. There is an interesting comparison group for Haiti - it shares an island with the Dominican Republic. While life is no picnic in the DR either, the DR fares better on most indices. According to a 2010 article in Time, the life expectancy in the DR is 74; in Haiti, 61. Literacy and incomes are higher in the DR. The DR has experienced far less deforestation, has far more infrastructure (roads, housing, hospitals), and is overall more modern. It's GDP is 10x higher than Haiti's, and the infant mortality rate 3-4 times lower. We can't blame this on natural disasters, as the DR has experienced plenty of tropical weather too.

Of course, we can't blame it on the people either. When Haitians immigrate to the U.S., they fare about as well as other Caribbean immigrants, and better on some measures. Different colonial histories are part of the issue, but surely a big part of it is the corruption and instability of governments in Haiti for decades. Indeed, if you want to blame a natural disaster, blame Hurricane Duvalier, which ravaged Haiti continuously for 30 years, and left a mess that still hasn't been fixed.

Interesting factoid about the DR - they took thousands of European Jews fleeing the Nazis, far more so than the UK and the USA put together. (One refugee ship docked at Miami, but the people were not allowed to disembark and it sailed back to Germany).

A further look into the history of Haiti reveals that it was forced to pay ruinous reparations to the French Republic for daring to revolt, retarding its development for a century. European nations did not want to antagonise France by trading with Haiti. Fearing an American slaves' revolt, Thomas Jefferson would not recognise the new nation either.

Papa Doc and Baby Doc of course held them up for decades longer, embezzling loans from the IMF.

That massive quake was centred in Haiti, while the DR escaped it. Though the latter has experienced smaller quakes, which their more robust infrastructure is better equipped to recover from.

So - Haiti's problems are a combination of historical disadvantage, home-grown dictatorship and natural disaster.

Yes and no. There is an interesting comparison group for Haiti - it shares an island with the Dominican Republic. While life is no picnic in the DR either, the DR fares better on most indices. According to a 2010 article in Time, the life expectancy in the DR is 74; in Haiti, 61. Literacy and incomes are higher in the DR. The DR has experienced far less deforestation, has far more infrastructure (roads, housing, hospitals), and is overall more modern. It's GDP is 10x higher than Haiti's, and the infant mortality rate 3-4 times lower. We can't blame this on natural disasters, as the DR has experienced plenty of tropical weather too.

Of course, we can't blame it on the people either. When Haitians immigrate to the U.S., they fare about as well as other Caribbean immigrants, and better on some measures. Different colonial histories are part of the issue, but surely a big part of it is the corruption and instability of governments in Haiti for decades. Indeed, if you want to blame a natural disaster, blame Hurricane Duvalier, which ravaged Haiti continuously for 30 years, and left a mess that still hasn't been fixed.

Yes and no. There is an interesting comparison group for Haiti - it shares an island with the Dominican Republic. While life is no picnic in the DR either, the DR fares better on most indices. According to a 2010 article in Time, the life expectancy in the DR is 74; in Haiti, 61. Literacy and incomes are higher in the DR. The DR has experienced far less deforestation, has far more infrastructure (roads, housing, hospitals), and is overall more modern. It's GDP is 10x higher than Haiti's, and the infant mortality rate 3-4 times lower. We can't blame this on natural disasters, as the DR has experienced plenty of tropical weather too.

Of course, we can't blame it on the people either. When Haitians immigrate to the U.S., they fare about as well as other Caribbean immigrants, and better on some measures. Different colonial histories are part of the issue, but surely a big part of it is the corruption and instability of governments in Haiti for decades. Indeed, if you want to blame a natural disaster, blame Hurricane Duvalier, which ravaged Haiti continuously for 30 years, and left a mess that still hasn't been fixed.

That the DR was right next door to Haiti was in the back of my mind when I posted above. Good point, as usual, SJS. I wonder that despite the proximity, perhaps there is a geographical challenge that the DR doesn't have that Haiti does? I don't know, but yes, it's a mess politically and economically and so, perhaps, when these disasters DO come, it hurts more than their neighbors.

My Aunt and Uncle work at the Venice (FL) Airport for Agape Flights, a charitable organization that supports American missionaries in Haiti. They flew a plane full of food and supplies down there today. It truly is a disaster area there. If you are looking to donate funds, I can vouch for Agape. Your money gets turned into food and supplies that will get to Haitians in need.